A few months ago I came across the uphill fitness program. When I first heard it, I admit I was a bit skeptical. Is it really that effective? Can something so simple really help me get in the way I want to be? However, now that I’ve tried it, I know it works. There are several things I like about him, but here are the top 5 things I love about Hill Sprinting:

1. No equipment needed: One of the best things I love about running hills and making it a part of my exercise routine is that it doesn’t involve a lot of fancy and expensive equipment. All I need is a good pair of shoes and a hill and I’m good to go. No machine to buy, no power supply required, no equipment to charge. I put on my shoes and head to the hill of the day.

2. The hill sprint works your whole body: You will use all the major muscle groups in your body, which have been shown to burn more fat than traditional low intensity cardiovascular work. Running hills makes your muscles strong and powerful. You know as well as I do that the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. After my first hill sprint workout, I realized that my whole body did, in fact, do a workout. I thought I would “feel the burning more” in my legs, but was surprised when my arms were as tired, if not a little more, than my legs. Not only that, with proper running technique, I also feel like my core muscles are working too. Yes, those abs work out too!

3. Hill sprinting is considered a high intensity workout. High intensity workouts have been shown to stimulate natural human growth hormone production. When you are young, HGH is the key to building muscle tissue. As you age, this hormone is a key factor in burning fat in your body. So as you can see, increasing this hormone helps us on our way to our fitness goals and high intensity exercise does just that.

4. Quality, not quantity: I like the fact that low volume and high intensity outperform high volume and low intensity. I don’t know about you, but I get bored of running for 30 minutes straight (or more) at the same pace. I LOVE the way high intensity sprints make me feel during training. It is not just a boring and monotonous task. It doesn’t even take long, but I feel fast and strong when I run. I feel like I’m getting in shape! Another great thing is that when all is said and done, I know I’ve had a great workout! If “having time” or “adapting exercise to your schedule” has been a major problem in maintaining an exercise routine, uphill fitness training is definitely a must try.

5. It’s a family affair: One thing that makes it easier to stick to an exercise program is having someone to do it with. A trail running program is the only program that my entire family has been able to do together. I do it, my husband does it and my 10 year old daughter does it. My youngest children, who are not old enough, also come with us and can “play” on the hill while we run. Since we don’t need a large area, it’s easy to keep an eye on the younger ones and still do our training. Although my husband, daughter and I are on different levels physically, because we all use the same hill, we are all in constant contact throughout the training and support each other. This would not be the case if we were all hanging around the track. Eventually all of our different rhythms would separate us quite a bit and we wouldn’t even be able to interact with each other during training. Riding a bike around the neighborhood is fun too, but what about the little ones? They can’t really keep up and we can’t pack every single one of them. The mountain races have been a great way for our family to keep fit and all together during practice. This is also the ONLY exercise that I have been able to convince other family members to do. Every time we visit my in-laws and do our training (they have a big hill right next to it) someone always joins in!

Now, as you can imagine, there are other benefits to hill running, but these are just the main factors that make it great for me. If you would like to learn more about the other benefits of hill sprinting, whether you are an athlete trying to improve performance or a person trying to live healthier every day, visit http: //www.fastpitchtalkradio .com / getfit .html. Find out what simple trail running training can do for you.